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The Numismatic Chronicle 172 Offprint The Numismatic Chronicle 172 Offprint The Production, Supply and Use of Late Roman and Early Byzantine Copper Coinage in the Eastern Empire by PETER GUEST LONDON THE ROYAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY 2012 THE PRODUCTION, SUPPLY AND USE OF LATE ROMAN AND 105 EARLY BYZANTINE COPPER COINAGE IN THE EASTERN EMPIRE The Production, Supply and Use of Late Roman and Early Byzantine Copper Coinage in the Eastern Empire PETER GUEST1 INTRODUCTION MAJOR campaigns of archaeological excavations at some of the largest and most important ancient cities around the Mediterranean have produced considerable quantities of late Roman and early Byzantine coins. These coins are a critical source of evidence for the cities’ histories and their fluctuating economic fortunes, yet relatively little attention has been paid to what they can tell us about the production of coinage or the functioning of the imperial monetary economy in Late Antiquity. The vast majority of these archaeologically recovered coins, known as site finds, are low-value bronze denominations that were the small change of the Roman currency system. This article aims to examine what archaeological assemblages of coins might tell us about the monetary economies of the cities where they are found, and to investigate if it is possible to identify whether the pool of circulating copper coinage was uniform across the empire or if different places and regions had access to different forms of currency. Ultimately, the goal is to attempt the reconstruction of small change production at the imperial mints in Late Antiquity and, by looking at coins as a means of exchange in the distribution of commodities, to examine what this tells us about the nature of the monetary economy of the late Roman and early Byzantine empire. The focus of the study is the analysis of site finds from several excavated sites divided into two case studies: the first will examine coins from nine cities in the central and eastern Mediterranean, while the second will concentrate on five sites from the lower Danube frontier in Bulgaria and Romania. The analysis begins with the currency reforms of the 360s, and ends in the early seventh century when the supply of Roman and Byzantine coinage to large areas of imperial territory dried up after they were lost to Goth, Slav and Arab invaders. CURRENCY IN LATE ANTIQUITY By 350 the basic structure of Roman coinage was well established and a network of mints was striking denominations in different metals (Fig. 1). The coinage was nominally tri-metallic though by the fifth century the production of silver coins had declined to ceremonial issues. The introduction of the solidus under Constantine I (307–37), by contrast, led to a massive increase in the production of gold coins. 1 I am most grateful to Richard Reece, Kevin Butcher, the anonymous referee and the editor of this journal for their helpful comments on a draft of this paper. 106 PETER GUEST The role played by gold coin in the Late Roman and Byzantine economy remains controversial, though from the point of view of the state, which had a monopoly on minting, the purpose of coinage was primarily fiscal. It enabled the imperial government to fulfil its obligations through the redistribution of wealth from the court to the army and aristocracy, on whom the survival of the empire depended, and to ensure that the state’s wealth would always return to the centre through taxation. Consequently the presence of gold coins, whether as hoards or single finds, reflects the needs of the state and its machinery rather than the existence of a market economy.2 There is an alternative view that gold was increasingly important in everyday transactions and the question also arises as to how the situation developed over time and if the system continued to operate in the way that the authorities intended.3 The recent volume of the Oxford History of Medieval Europe presents a picture of wholesale aristocratic tax evasion, forcing the state to pay the army partly in copper, by the time of Maurice (582–602).4 Fig. 1. Map of the central and eastern Mediterranean showing mints and nine sites examined. The evidence from excavated sites and hoards shows that bronze and copper coinage was issued in very large quantities from the fourth century, yet these coins 2 This is in turn a reflection of the ‘modernist’ versus ‘primitivist’ view of the ancient economy. For an up to date survey, particularly regarding its relevance to modern ideas about the Byzantine economy see the ‘Introduction’ by Morrisson to Morrisson 2012, pp. 1–9. 3 Banaji 2006, especially pp. 267–73. 4 Sarris 2011, p. 239. THE PRODUCTION, SUPPLY AND USE OF LATE ROMAN AND 107 EARLY BYZANTINE COPPER COINAGE IN THE EASTERN EMPIRE are mentioned only very rarely in contemporary historical sources and we know even less about the production of low-value coinage or how people used small change. It would seem the function of bronze coinage was twofold: to facilitate commerce and to allow the population of the empire to convert high-value gold coins into a medium more suitable for the vast majority of day-to-day monetary exchanges, and back again when the time came to pay those taxes that had to be remitted in gold. The Roman state episodically demonetised its bronze coinage between the later fourth and sixth centuries, and such monetary reforms occurred in 364, 378, 408, perhaps in 425, and again in 498 and 512. The evidence for systematic recall by the Byzantine state is patchy and in principle, therefore, bronze coinage could remain in use for many years. After the currency reforms introduced at the beginning of the reign of Valentinian I (364–75) in 364 Roman currency included at least three bronze denominations, only one of which seems to have been widely available.5 Over time these coins became ever smaller and throughout much of the fifth century the mints struck only one type, the nummus, a poorly struck small copper coin between 7 and 15 millimetres in diameter. These are frequently very corroded after a millennium-and- a-half in the ground and it is often difficult to assign many of these late-fourth and fifth century site finds to an emperor’s reign or mint. It is rare for more than 50 per cent of excavated finds from late Roman sites to survive in a condition that allows close dating.6 Anastasius (491–518) introduced an entirely new arrangement of bronze denominations of different values in 498, marking the division between what we know as Roman and Byzantine monetary history. The reform was in two stages. In 498 a new follis of 40 nummi with fractions of 20 and 10 nummi was struck. In 512 the size of these was dramatically increased and a 5 nummi piece was introduced. The nummus itself continued to be issued at least until the reign of Justin I in the east though it continued for longer in the west. There was some regional variation and Thessalonica, for example, temporarily had its own system that included 16, 8, 3 and 2 nummi, while Alexandria issued 12 and 6 nummi. The smaller denominations had mostly disappeared by the seventh century and after the victory over Persia in 629 the mints in the east were closed with the exception of Constantinople and Alexandria.7 SITE-FINDS IN THE LATE ROMAN MEDITERRANEAN AND LOWER DANUBE REGION – DATA AND METHOD The late Roman and early Byzantine coins from excavations in nine cities in the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa have been collected together for the first case study. The cities are Athens, Corinth and Nemea in Greece, Sardis in Asia 5 Uncertainty over the value and the names of these coins had lead numismatists to describe them as Æ1, Æ2 and Æ3 according to size. The tiny nummi of the fifth century are called Æ4. 6 Reece 1984. 7 Grierson 1982, pp. 59–77. 108 PETER GUEST Minor, Beirut, Caesarea Maritima and Jerusalem in the Near East, Carthage in North Africa, and Butrint on the Illyrian coast of the Adriatic (see Fig. 1). Other lists of coins have been published from excavations in large cities in the Mediterranean, but it was not possible to include these in this analysis because the arrangement or format of their publication does not allow them to be easily summarised according to the standard numismatic Issue Periods used here.8 There is no universally agreed system for the presentation of coin catalogues and the lists from these nine cities are all published using different, and not necessarily complementary, schemes. To some extent this reflects how numismatics developed during the twentieth century, but it is also the case that even those reports of late Roman coins published in the last twenty or thirty years use a variety of arrangements, depending presumably on the preferences of the individuals identifying and cataloguing hundreds or thousands of excavated coins. In most cases it is possible, given time, to bring these coin lists together under a single chronological sequence, but the continuing inconsistency in how site finds are published remains a frustration for those who wish to compare coins from different excavations and settlements.9 The second case study examines the published site finds from six fortified urban and military sites in the lower Danube region, including Nicopolis ad Istrum, Sadovec and Dichin in northern Bulgaria, Iatrus to the east of these sites, Sucidava on the north bank of the Danube in modern Romania, and Histria on the Black Sea coast also in Romania (Fig. 2).10 Although these five settlements were first established at different times in antiquity they were all occupied throughout the fourth and fifth centuries, before being abandoned at various points during the later sixth century when the lower Danube frontier was overrun by barbarians.11 8 Some numismatists choose to list and summarise assemblages by emperor, some by mint, while others consider that a chronological arrangement by reverse type is the best approach.
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